


Honeythief

by 64907



Category: Arashi (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Awkward Crush, Costume Kink, Costumes, Explicit Sexual Content, Ghosts, Haunting, M/M, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-02
Updated: 2016-06-02
Packaged: 2018-07-11 19:47:22
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,651
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7067581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/64907/pseuds/64907
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sho is facing a financial problem after being sacked from his job, and just when he thinks things can’t become worse, he discovers that his apartment is haunted.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Honeythief

**Author's Note:**

> Or, the story of Kirin Mets Men + Nissan CM!Nino with Sho as their unofficial secretary.
> 
> This was supposed to be a Ghostbusters AU with Sho as the receptionist, but it turned out rather different so I'm not calling it that. Thanks to Angel who looked over this and was just as !!!! as I was over the idea.

The pizza guy gave Sho a happy smile as he handed over Sho’s order: a box of pepperoni and sausages, extra cheese.  
  
Sho had been having another sleepless night, and the ding of his doorbell had signalled salvation from the things his mind kept thinking of. In his pajamas, he had shuffled groggily to answer the door and grab his order, returning a weak smile as he handed over the money.  
  
“Long night?” pizza guy asked. He took note of Sho’s disheveled hair and overall rumpled state.  
  
“Sort of,” Sho said, refusing to elaborate.  
  
Pizza guy counted his change and nodded, handing it to him. “Enjoy your pizza, both of you.”  
  
Sho froze at that.  
  
“What?” he asked weakly.  
  
Pizza guy gave him a puzzled look, then tilted his chin behind Sho, towards Sho’s living room which was in view of the door. Sho turned, feeling goosebumps cascading down his spine.  
  
There was no one there.  
  
He lived alone.  
  
“Have a great night,” pizza guy said, leaving without another word.  
  
Sho’s hand trembled around the pizza box. It was still hot, a promising treat after staying up all night and worrying for how long he could keep this up. He was out of a job, and the hunt wasn’t looking too good either. After several moments of tossing and turning on his bed, he’d decided to eat his sorrows away.  
  
But now the idea didn’t look too inviting.  
  
“Calm down,” he told himself. Pizza guy could be tricking him. Maybe given the hour (it was three in the morning) business had been slow and the guy had only wanted to have a bit of fun.  
  
But he certainly hadn’t looked like he was lying.  
  
Sho’s phone was in his bedroom and he walked in light, cautious steps to retrieve it, pointedly not looking at the direction of the living room.  
  
He had the pizza box on his lap as he whipped up Google and began typing with trembling fingers.  
  
_possibly haunted apartment, exorcists near me????_  
  
As soon as he hit the blue Go button, the lights in his entire apartment went out. Sho’s breath stopped.  
  
He made the mistake of looking up from his phone, and there she was, sitting on his couch. She was glowing, eerily luminescent in various shades of blue. She wasn’t looking at Sho, but Sho was shaking from head to foot now, his mouth too dry to form words. He couldn’t even scream.  
  
She slowly turned her head to face him, and after a few seconds of staring at nothing but black holes for eyes, she smiled, ghastly and terrifying.  
  
Sho ran out of his apartment, pizza forgotten.  
  
\--  
  
He made it to the lobby of his apartment building before he collapsed on the nearest chair, grateful for the lights and the patrolling night guard who eyed him with concern.  
  
“You okay, buddy?” the guard asked, but Sho couldn’t speak.  
  
He was still trembling, and the next thing he knew, guard was handing him a cup of water which he accepted with shaking hands.  
  
“There’s someone in my apartment,” he managed to say after gulping all contents of the cup.  
  
The guard was already using his walkie-talkie and brandishing his flashlight. “Just now? Did they take anything? Did they say what they want?”  
  
“No,” Sho said, not quite feeling his voice return. How was he to explain what he saw? Was it a ghost? A ghoul? Sho didn’t believe in these things.  
  
But she was there.  
  
“Where do you live?”  
  
“Fifth floor, second door to the elevator.”  
  
“Stay here,” the guard told him, taking off once the other security personnel arrived to relieve him. “Keep an eye on him,” guard said to his friend, who just nodded.  
  
It didn’t even take ten minutes before Sho heard the thudding of rushed footsteps, the guard from earlier rushing towards them and looking so pale.  
  
Sho didn’t imagine it then.  
  
“What was that?!” the guard asked him, and Sho only stared at him.  
  
“I don’t know!”  
  
“She was glowing!”  
  
“I know!”  
  
Then the guy passed out, and the other security person had to call an ambulance, and Sho sat there, vowing never to return to his own place.  
  
His phone went off, an alarm for 4 AM that he had set back when he still had his job. He never got to turn it off, and he swiped his finger to do so.  
  
His phone unlocked, and he saw the search results.  
  
Tapping on the topmost link led him to a website that looked like a MySpace profile page, but it took his attention away from his pressing problem, and that was what he needed. He kept scrolling, finding that the words made no sense. He read the words “extermination”, “banishment”, “prompt handling”, and “affordable price”, and he went back to reread the entire paragraph.  
  
_Experts on the paranormal, easy to reach for an affordable price. Give us a call and we’ll discuss your problem. Extermination fees are subject to change, but we promise prompt handling and efficient banishment. Services offered for 24 hours._  
  
There was a number underneath, written in glitter text.  
  
Any normal person would treat it as a hoax, a prank that would lead to a jumpscare, perhaps a scam. Any sane person would press the back button and look for a new place to live in despite their dire situation.  
  
But Sho knew what he saw, and that wasn’t normal.  
  
He made the call.  
  
\--  
  
The guy who answered sounded very bored, snorting every once in a while as he asked for details regarding Sho’s predicament. His address, apartment number, directions how to get there, time he saw the “being” (the guy called it as such), his description of it, what did it do.  
  
Sho had to clutch at his phone with both hands as he answered.  
  
“Minato, Hiroo Station. There’s a LAWSON shop beside the building’s lobby.”  
  
“I saw her around 3 AM.”  
  
“She was blue and glowing, old, had dark holes for eyes.”  
  
“She smiled at me.”  
  
“And where are you now?” the guy asked from the other line, like this was a normal conversation they were having.  
  
“At my building’s lobby.” The ambulance had arrived and its sirens kept making noise as the paramedics hauled the guard away. Sho felt sorry for him, but he was in a somewhat similar state. It was a miracle he hadn’t yet passed out.  
  
“Did you call the police?” the guy asked, and he sounded like he was laughing.  
  
“No,” Sho said, starting to get annoyed. “That was the ambulance. One of the security guards went to check my place and I think he saw the same thing. He fainted.”  
  
“What’s your name?” the guy finally asked, and Sho could hear a shuffle of movement from the other side.  
  
“Sakurai Sho.”  
  
“Okay, Sho-chan. Give us fifteen minutes.”  
  
The call ended after that.  
  
\--  
  
Fifteen minutes later, Sho found himself explaining to the guard that these were experts who promised him they could handle the “situation” in his apartment.  
  
The guard (not the one who fainted, of course) eyed them skeptically. Sho was still in his pajamas (polka-dotted), and he was standing in front of a guy in a loud red suit, hair perfectly styled and adorned with a gold headband, a cane perched on his shoulders. He even wore eyeliner. He’d brought someone with him, another man with perfect hair but clad in leather, guns with wires and colored tubes wrapped around his thighs and across his chest. He wore purple boots that ran up his shins and knee pads, and he looked annoyed.  
  
“If he doesn’t let us through, I’m afraid we can’t solve your problem,” red suit said, smirking at Sho. At the tone of his voice, Sho realized this was the guy on the phone. “Do you want your problem solved?”  
  
“Yes,” Sho answered. He was still shaking.  
  
“I’m not letting strangers in without supervision, Sakurai-san,” the guard told him, eyeing purple boots’ guns. The man stared back at him, and he seemed to cower a little. “Building policy,” he added.  
  
“What if they come with us?” Purple Boots asked Red Suit, already looking like he’d lost his patience completely and wanted this over as soon as possible. “We take them with us, do the job, then we’re done.”  
  
“You’re such a grump,” Red Suit told his friend, who just scoffed at him. Red Suit turned to Sho, smiling at him. “I’m afraid you’ll have to accompany us to your place, Sho-chan. Your security guard here doesn’t make exceptions.”  
  
“I’m not going back there,” Sho said.  
  
Purple Boots gave him a look, but Sho remembered what he had seen. She had _smiled_ at him! “I’m not going back there,” Sho repeated with more conviction.  
  
“Well that’s a shame. Sorry for the trouble, guard, guess we can’t do our job after all,” Red Suit said, shrugging his shoulders. Purple Boots rolled his eyes.  
  
Red Suit was about to turn around and leave, but Sho reached out to grab his arm.  
  
“I won’t leave the elevator,” he said quietly, not letting the man go.  
  
Red Suit smiled at his companion then back at Sho. “Lead us to your haunted apartment then, Sho-chan.”  
  
\--  
  
Red Suit went by the name of Ninomiya Kazunari, Nino for short. Nino introduced his purple boots-wearing friend as Matsumoto Jun, who only offered a grunt in acknowledgement.  
  
“He was watering his bonsai when you called,” Nino said in the elevator. “So he’s a little angry that you took that precious bonding time away.”  
  
“Stop telling our clients what we do in private,” Jun scolded, but Nino only snorted.  
  
The elevator’s ding saved Sho from replying, and Sho froze when he saw that his apartment door was still open.  
  
“You’re really staying in the elevator?” Nino asked.  
  
The corridor was dark, the overhead lights were powered down. There was nothing in the hallway except the eerie silence that made Sho want to return to the lobby.  
  
“Leave him,” Jun said, cocking his gun. There was a wiring attached to the butt of it, a thick one that led to a device attached to Jun’s belt. He was elaborately dressed than Nino who only had the striking suit, the headband, and the cane.  
  
“Don’t you want to see your money’s worth?” Nino asked, pointedly ignoring Jun.  
  
Jun sighed and stepped out of the elevator, standing with his hip jutting out as he seemed to listen for something.  
  
“I think I can see it just fine from here,” Sho answered.  
  
Nino grinned at him. “Feel anything, J?” he asked, looking at Jun now.  
  
Jun drew out his other gun. “Yeah. She’s waiting.”  
  
“Well that’s new,” Nino said, leaving Sho pressed against the wall of the elevator. “They usually don’t want us here.”  
  
“Not waiting for us,” Jun said. Then he inclined his head towards Sho. “For him.”  
  
Sho wanted to faint. His legs felt like jelly and if he didn’t have the bars behind him to support him, he’d be slumped on the floor.  
  
“You’ve got an admirer, Sho-chan,” Nino said, and Sho only gulped as a reaction.  
  
There was a wheezing sound that pierced the air and Sho stood frozen in his spot as he saw her, still glowing in blue and feet dangling a few inches from the floor, exiting his apartment by gliding slowly.  
  
His breath hitched when she turned to them, and even without her eyes, Sho knew she was zeroed on him. She smiled really big, all crooked and decaying teeth, and Sho wanted to sink to his knees and cry out of fright. Why his apartment, of all places? Why now, of all nights?  
  
But then Nino and Jun started moving. Nino’s cane turned out to be not really a cane, because when he flipped it in his hands, something came out of its edges. It now looked like a halberd but without sharp edges.  
  
She advanced towards them, still grinning at Sho, and Sho heard something like Jun’s guns charging.  
  
“Stay with him,” Jun said to Nino.  
  
Nino laughed. “Show-off.” But he stepped back and put himself in front of the elevator and looked over his shoulder. “Don’t close the doors.”  
  
“What?” Sho asked, already halfway into doing that. She was getting closer and he would never be able to get the sight of her out of his mind.  
  
“If you close the doors she’s going to disappear and come back some other time,” Nino told him. “Keep the doors open. She won’t get to you.”  
  
Sho didn’t want to believe that, despite Jun and Nino standing between him and her. She was closer to Jun now, but Jun was still standing there and doing nothing.  
  
“She’s coming after me,” Sho mumbled, voice cracking, but he listened to Nino. He kept his finger pressing the HOLD button so the doors wouldn’t slide shut.  
  
“She won’t get to you,” Nino assured him. “Jun-kun’s got her.”  
  
And as soon as he’d said that, Jun sprung into action. There must be some kind of propelling device attached to the sole of his boots, causing him to dash faster than any normal human as he ran towards her. There was a shriek that made Sho’s blood run cold, and he heard Jun firing his gun. There were splashes, some kind of liquid that stuck to her and she let out another shrill scream and Sho shut his eyes, convincing himself it was all a bad dream. The elevator lights blinked as she continued hollering, and Sho’s knees gave out.  
  
There were more noises but he didn’t dare look anymore, flinching every time he heard her howl, like she was calling for his attention.  
  
Then he heard her scream his name and he couldn’t help it anymore. He cried, feeling so scared and so alone, burying his face at the corner of the elevator. His finger remained pressing the HOLD button but he let out a sob every time he heard her ear-splitting voice calling out his name.  
  
He heard Jun call for Nino, followed by a series of footsteps.  
  
After that, there was silence.  
  
Sho willed himself to open his eyes, wiping his face hastily. He looked around slowly, fearing she might be there looming over him, but instead of dark holes for eyes and an ugly smile, he saw brown ones and lips that had marks surrounding them.  
  
“You okay?” Jun asked, face creased to a frown. He was crouching now, eyes in level with Sho’s. His eyebrows made his gesture more intimidating, but Sho detected the concern in his voice.  
  
“Is...is she gone?” Sho asked back, voice close to cracking.  
  
“Nino’s wrapping it up,” Jun said. He turned to his side, giving Sho a full view of his pale neck that had been hidden by the high-collared leather jacket he wore. “Nino, hurry up!”  
  
“Oh will you relax,” Nino grumbled, finally stepping inside the elevator and holding a tiny glass ball that had something blue swirling inside it. “She wouldn’t keep still. You try jamming them into these things for once, let’s see how fast you can do it.”  
  
“That’s not my job,” Jun said, rising to his feet. He offered his hand to Sho, and Sho accepted. Jun’s grip was as strong as his built, and Sho found himself on his feet again, his clammy hand still clasping Jun’s.  
  
“Think you can find your way back?” Jun asked as Sho stood on wobbly feet. Sho finally let him go, and he saw Nino looking at him.  
  
“Is she really gone?” he asked.  
  
Nino raised the glass ball. “Technically, she’s right here.” He grinned, gold headband gleaming under the light. “But yeah, she’s gone from your apartment.”  
  
“Is she the only one there?” Sho asked.  
  
“You didn’t pay us to check it out,” Nino told him, smile growing wider.  
  
He heard Jun sigh. “Stop being an asshole, Nino.” He elbowed his way out of the elevator and made his way to Sho’s apartment, the only open door on the floor. It was odd that not one of his neighbors heard the screaming. She had been howling earlier.  
  
Sho stepped out of the elevator and took small steps back to his place, Nino right at his heels. Jun had disappeared, welcoming himself inside Sho’s apartment, and by the time Sho made it to his door, all the lights were back on and Jun was standing in his living room, looking out of place.  
  
“All gone?” Nino asked. He was leaning against the railing behind him, tossing the glass ball in the air while his cane remained balanced on his shoulders, supported by his other hand.  
  
“Clear,” Jun confirmed, stepping out. “Your place is filthy.”  
  
Sho reddened, bowing his head immediately. “I’m sorry.”  
  
“Now who’s the asshole?” Nino asked, but Jun ignored him.  
  
Sho shuffled on his feet, letting the silence linger for a while. “We haven’t discussed the payment,” he said eventually, and Nino stopped playing with the ball and made his way inside Sho’s place.  
  
“Well we are not going to discuss it outside,” he said. He at least had the courtesy to remove his shoes and leave them at Sho’s genkan. “Sorry for the intrusion!” he announced belatedly, already taking a seat with legs crossed on Sho’s couch. Sho noticed that he wore mismatched socks.  
  
Sho turned to look at Jun who sighed. “You need to tidy up,” he told Sho, but then he was removing his boots and heading inside.  
  
Sho’s refrigerator yielded nothing when he tried to look for drinks to offer his unexpected guests (ghost not included) and he bowed in apology, coming out honestly that he had nothing much to give considering his current financial situation.  
  
“You’re unemployed?” Nino asked, earning a glare from Jun, but like always, Nino ignored it.  
  
Sho gave a grim nod. “For a week now.”  
  
“This place certainly doesn’t look cheap,” Nino said, looking around. “Untidy, yes, but if you want to continue living here—”  
  
“I don’t,” Sho said immediately.  
  
He felt Jun and Nino looking at him and he pursed his lips. “I don’t think I can forget what I saw,” he explained, not quite meeting their eyes. Besides, with the way things were going, he’d hardly be able to afford the place. He could handle next month’s rent by tapping onto his savings, but if he kept doing that he’d be left with nothing.  
  
Nino and Jun exchanged one look. Jun was shaking his head at Nino’s grin, then they jankened for it without uttering a word.  
  
Jun had rock and Nino had paper.  
  
Nino turned his happy smile to Sho. “Well Sho-chan, seeing as you can’t really pay us for the service and that you’re also in a bind when it comes to finances, I may have a solution for you.”  
  
Jun was covering half of his face with his hand now, looking like he greatly disapproved of whatever Nino had in mind. But he couldn’t do a thing, Sho figured, because he remained sitting there with his eyes shut.  
  
Sho thought about how this night was going so far: not a wink of sleep, forgotten and cold pizza, screaming ghost who had known his name, fainting security guard, two exterminators in odd outfits lounging in his sofa like they were Sho’s old friends.  
  
He was almost out of money, he had no job, no guts (he did cry in the elevator earlier), and no energy left (this had been a long night). What more did he have to lose?  
  
“I’m listening,” he told Nino, and Nino’s smile broadened.  
  
\--  
  
Nino’s solution was simple: give Sho a job.  
  
He wouldn’t get paid for the first month because of his existing debt for Jun and Nino’s extermination service, but that was fine with him because it still meant he had a job.  
  
The job, as Nino put it, would be for Sho to do as Nino had done earlier: to answer calls.  
  
“It’s a receptionist job,” Nino clarified, digging in his coat pockets for a business card. “Someone calls and you ask them the details, then you send us running. There are actually four of us working every night, but Leader and Aiba-chan are out fishing together and will come back next week.”  
  
Sho, due to lack of sleep, couldn’t really pick up on most of what Nino had said. He figured “Leader and Aiba-chan” were Nino and Jun’s colleagues, perhaps clad in strange outfits as well.  
  
He accepted the business card and read what it said.  
  


  
_**Ninomiya Kazunari**_  
Exterminator/Paranormal Expert

  
  
Below it was an office address in Daikan-Yama and the same hotline Sho had seen on the website.  
  
“Show up tomorrow for your interview,” Nino said, standing and buttoning the top button of his suit jacket. “Since most of our calls come at night, we’ll be expecting you at five in the afternoon, one hour before business hours.”  
  
Sho frowned, following them to his genkan. “I thought you operate 24 hours.”  
  
“That’s what the website says. But you don’t really see ghosts roaming around when the sun is up, do you?” Nino asked. Jun was already putting on his boots, not contributing a single word to the conversation. His guns were tucked in their holsters and they clinked every time he moved.  
  
“I suppose not,” Sho said.  
  
Nino gave him a two-fingered salute. “See you tomorrow.” He went out without another word, leaving Sho with Jun who was still putting on his left boot.  
  
“You can refuse,” Jun told him, speaking at last. He gestured to the calling card in Sho’s hands. “We don’t really need a receptionist. It’s just that everybody hates answering the phone.”  
  
Sho blinked. “Uh, I think that’s what a receptionist is for, if you guys hate answering calls.” Calls which give you jobs, Sho didn’t add.  
  
Feet tucked in his boots, Jun stood, and with Sho barefoot, Jun was at least an inch taller. He eyed Sho curiously and Sho stared back. “Do you really want to work for us?” Jun asked.  
  
Sho raised Nino’s card between them. “My interview is tomorrow.”  
  
He saw Jun’s lips twitch to a tiny smile as he headed for the door. “Good night, Sakurai-san.”  
  
It was unexpected, and Sho was about to point out that it was already morning when his door slid shut, leaving him alone.  
  
\--  
  
His interview turned out to be a formality, conducted by Nino alone in the lounge of their small office in a three-storey building. The building was old, but the glass doors that led to the office of his future employers had PLEASE USE THE OTHER DOOR pasted on the right and THIS IS THE OTHER DOOR on the left.  
  
He felt stupid for wearing a suit, something Nino laughed at. Nino wasn’t in his red suit from the night before, instead in a loose shirt and beach shorts. He asked Sho questions just as he had on the phone.  
  
The most absurd question Nino had for him was “do you believe in ghosts?” and after last night, Sho’s only answer was a yes.  
  
“You’re hired,” Nino declared, “being the only applicant.” Nino pointed to the L-shaped desk a few paces in front of the glass doors. “That’s your table. We technically only operate from 6 to 6. If that phone rings past 6 AM, it’s not your problem anymore.”  
  
“When do I start?” Sho asked, and Nino grinned.  
  
“Why, Sho-chan,” he began, standing up and stretching, “you start tonight.”  
  
\--  
  
Sho was three hours into his new job when Jun arrived, pushing the door open with half of his body. He seemed smaller in form without the elaborate leather and guns. He looked normal, dressed in a sweater and baggy jeans.  
  
“He hired you?” Jun said as soon as their eyes met. Without waiting for an answer, he sighed and made his way inside. “Of course he did. Nice tie, by the way.”  
  
Sho colored a bit at that. He felt overdressed, but getting a compliment about his tie made him happy.  
  
When Sho looked up, there was a can of beer on his face.  
  
He accepted it graciously as Jun perched himself on his desk and opened his own can.  
  
“You drink while working?” Sho asked. He hadn’t opened his can of Kirin yet.  
  
Jun shrugged. “Your job is to just answer the phone. If that thing doesn’t ring, nothing’s happening. Drink up.”  
  
Sho did, and he felt Jun giving him a strange look.  
  
“How are you feeling?” Jun asked. His kindness didn’t really match his features.  
  
“Still shaken,” Sho admitted. “I didn’t get to sleep much.” He’d only slept when he was certain the sun was out, and he’d made his way to this office while the sun was still up. He couldn’t forget last night. If he closed his eyes for too long, he was afraid he’d see her and her frightening grin.  
  
“It’ll pass,” Jun said, taking another sip.  
  
“What was that, really?” Sho never got to ask Nino questions earlier because Nino had been direct to the point, firing questions about Sho’s last job, expected salary, the specifics on how he’d ended up with nothing to pay for Jun and Nino’s services the night before.  
  
“She took a liking to you,” Jun answered. Sho felt the hair at the back of his neck stand. “They do that sometimes. I didn’t get much from her because she only wanted you, but she’d been there for a while.”  
  
The idea of that ghost watching him as he took a bath and slept didn’t sit well with him. “That’s...I think I would have lived a little more happily not knowing that.”  
  
He heard huffs of a laugh, and he saw Jun hiding his chuckles behind his beer can. “You’ll really believe anything I say, huh?”  
  
It sank in, and Sho made a face. “You’re the worst.”  
  
“I’m your boss, Sakurai-san,” Jun said as a reminder. Then he laughed. “You should have seen your face.”  
  
Sho looked away and settled for drinking his beer. He couldn’t have embarrassed himself any further, considering that he’d cried inside an elevator while Jun had handled his then-resident ghost.  
  
“She hated you,” Jun said, voice serious this time.  
  
Sho eyed him warily. “You’re lying again, aren’t you?” If she’d hated him, why all the smiles?  
  
“No, I’m not.” When Sho only stared disbelievingly, Jun’s face broke into a smile. “I’m really not! She hated you because you kept the house untidy! All I gathered was that she did like you to a certain extent, but she hated what you’ve done with the place. I’ve been in your apartment and honestly, I couldn’t blame her. You had stacks of ramen cups in your sink.”  
  
“I cleaned up today,” Sho retorted. “How come nobody else heard her? She was screaming.”  
  
Jun licked his lips before taking another sip of his beer. “Because she wasn’t haunting them. She was haunting you, so only you could hear her.”  
  
Sho frowned. “The security guard saw her.”  
  
“Well so did we,” Jun pointed out. “They aren’t exactly invisible unless they choose to be. She was really screaming?”  
  
It dawned on Sho then. “You really couldn’t hear her.”  
  
Jun shook his head. “She kept opening her mouth though. I figured she was either saying something to you or yelling at you.” He smiled. “My guess wasn’t so off then.”  
  
“But that was really it?” Sho wasn’t convinced. “She smiled at me!”  
  
Jun’s eyebrow quirked. “She had no eyes, how can you tell she was smiling at you?”  
  
“She was looking at me!”  
  
“She had no eyes!”  
  
Sho pouted and Jun laughed, lifting his beer can to his lips. “She just wanted to scare you away.”  
  
“Because I have a filthy apartment?”  
  
Jun crushed his empty can in his fist. “Exactly.”  
  
He left Sho alone after that, yelling for Nino to show him the grocery receipt from this morning. Whatever that meant.  
  
\--  
  
Sho had been working for almost two months when he got his first phone call. It came at two in the morning, and his hand trembled as he picked up the receiver.  
  
A woman was panicking on the other line, telling him she’d seen the website and that she needed help, right now. Sho didn’t bother asking her to calm down, instead asking for the details of what she saw and listing it down.  
  
Ohno was the one who stepped out from the back where they were all supposedly beating each other’s asses in Mario Kart. He had a questioning look and Sho just nodded.  
  
Ohno went back inside, and soon, Sho could no longer hear any sound emitting from the gaming console.  
  
After reassuring the woman on the line that help was on the way, Sho left his desk and headed for the backroom. The office, aside from the main room which had Sho’s desk and the mini lounge that had four waiting chairs (that nobody used), had a backroom of sorts that led to the kitchen, the bathroom, and the gaming room. On the other side of the short hallway were the rooms that the other four used whenever they got too tired to go back home.  
  
Aiba and Ohno were already dressing up, their colorful cape and coat the only things missing from their outfits. Somewhere on the floor, Nino had his head plopped comfortably on Jun’s lap, who kept grumbling that Nino should get off him.  
  
Sho ignored them, focusing his attention on Aiba and Ohno instead. He had met Ohno and Aiba a couple of weeks ago, but had yet to see them in action. They, like Jun and Nino, opted to wear casual clothes unless they got a call, and that was rare lately.  
  
“What is it this time?” Aiba asked, fastening something like a billy club to his waist. Sho never saw them dressed before and took note of everything: Ohno had a metal arm, a cape that matched its red color, and a suit that had leather straps attached to it. Aiba had two billy clubs attached to his hip and a nunchaku on the other, a blue coat, and a headdress that kept the hair out of his face.  
  
Sho gave the specifics. Address, client name (Mizukawa Asami), time of supposed apparition (2 AM), description of the beings (twin girls who giggled ominously, found in the bathroom of Mizukawa’s apartment).  
  
“Kids these days,” Nino commented unhelpfully, chuckling at his own joke.  
  
“We’ll be off then,” Ohno said, waving his hand in farewell. Sho only stared at him for a while, taking in his appearance along with Aiba’s.  
  
“Oh yeah, you haven’t seen Oh-chan and Aiba-shi in full gear before,” Nino said, and Sho turned to him. He was still lying on Jun’s lap, and Jun kept pushing him off to no avail.  
  
“What’s with the arm?” Sho asked.  
  
Nino smiled. “That’s the weapon.”  
  
None of these things made sense to Sho, given that in the time he could’ve seen Jun and Nino in action, he had chosen to shut his eyes and pretend he was someplace else. Aiba’s billy clubs and Jun’s guns did look like gear for ghost extermination, but Nino’s cane and Ohno’s metal arm looked more like effects than actual weapons.  
  
Sho nodded at Nino’s explanation and moved to leave. “I’ll go start a report.”  
  
He heard Jun saying something like “you’re such a dick, Nino,” but couldn’t verify it since he already made his way to his desk. Aside from a receptionist he also functioned as a secretary of sorts—writing up reports of whatever paranormal incident his bosses encounter for future archiving purposes, sorting out their mail and bills, improving the website despite his lack of knowledge on how to use Dreamweaver and Photoshop.  
  
He had at least removed the glittery text and the MySpace profile layout, instead going for something simpler and sticking to sans-serif fonts. It wasn’t as elegant and as professional looking as a corporate website, but it was a definite improvement. He’d found out that Aiba had been the one responsible for the website, which explained a lot. It was a wonder they’d managed to keep their business afloat despite that homepage.  
  
He was stacking receipts when he heard movement, and he looked up to find Nino handing him a mug of coffee. He accepted it graciously, finding the caffeine boost welcoming.  
  
“How’s the apartment?” Nino asked. He always asked that whenever his games couldn’t entertain him anymore and he set out to bug Sho.  
  
“Not haunted anymore, I guess.” Sho ended up keeping his lease, since he’d managed to pay his debt with his first month salary. Despite being an odd job where he did mostly nothing, it paid well. His upcoming salary would go to his rent, and since he was in a night job, sleeping on his place hadn’t been a problem.  
  
“Jun-kun kicked me out,” Nino explained, chuckling to himself.  
  
“He was telling you to go away,” Sho affirmed.  
  
“That J. You’d think he’s cool with the guns and the leather, but he’s really a shy and awkward one.”  
  
Sho had no idea what Nino was talking about. Every time Sho talked to Jun, all he’d remember was how the guy had handled the ghost that had haunted his apartment. He hadn’t seen Jun in costume for a while, which was a bummer given that Sho really liked him in that outfit. His little crush on his savior wasn’t addressed by anyone, but Sho had this feeling that Nino knew. Nino somehow knew everything. He’d even managed to correctly guess the color of Sho’s underwear one time.  
  
“He’s the baby of the group, did you know that?” Nino asked, smirking.  
  
Sho did know that Jun was the youngest in the team of exterminators. Jun was younger than Sho, and yet, Sho thought Jun was way cooler than he’d ever be.  
  
“I knew,” Sho said.  
  
Nino’s smirk didn’t disappear. “He’s a cute one. He just gets really embarrassed whenever we try to help him out.”  
  
Sho was confused. “What?”  
  
Nino took his now-empty coffee mug and laughed, leaving him with no explanation.

\--

Over the next couple of months, Sho had been receiving a lot of calls. Some were bogus (a bunch of high schoolers trying the number to see if somebody would really answer), but most were the real deal. Sho’s employers left the office in turns, depending on the description of the haunting.  
  
Some of the ghosts were “pretty harmless” according to Aiba, but Aiba was prone to underestimating things because he had a high threshold for paranormal phenomena. He was easily frightened like Sho, he’d claimed, but once he donned the costume it was like he was a different person. Sho never understood since he had no cool costume to wear, so he only took Aiba’s word for it.  
  
Most ghosts though, had nothing but mischief on their minds. The calls Sho received almost twice a week consisted of ghosts fooling around—overturning furniture, switching off the lights and the TV, opening faucets, and sometimes breathing on people’s faces.  
  
Sho was glad he never experienced the latter one. He’d probably pass out.  
  
More calls also meant more chances to see his employers in costume. Nino was the one less elaborately dressed out of the four, but he seemed to make up for it by wearing red suits and eyeliner every time. Nino was the only one who put on makeup, but all of them abused hair gel. Sho had to rush to the convenience store every time they ran out, and since he realized how much they used hair gel, he’d kept a stack for each in the bathroom.  
  
Out of all the intricate outfits the four of them put on, Sho only fantasized about the ones Jun wore. He never voiced it out loud, but he looked forward to seeing Jun in costume every time the phone rang. He’d follow Jun with his eyes whenever they moved to leave, trying to remember how many leather straps he’d seen attached to the man’s body.  
  
Every time Jun would go out to handle an extermination, Nino would never fail to smile meaningfully at Sho.  
  
Tonight, it was Ohno and Nino’s turn to handle a haunting near Yoyogi, leaving Jun and Aiba in the backroom while Sho typed away a preliminary report. Tonight’s caller reported about rattling spoons and forks and hearing a child’s giggle every time she turned off the lights. Spooky, but she had seen nothing and would like for a couple of experts to check her place out.  
  
Sho couldn’t put much on his document aside from the facts, and soon he moved on to counterchecking budget reports. His job now extended to managing the office’s bills, since his employers seemed to have no time to deal with such.  
  
He was squinting in front of his laptop when the phone rang, making him jump a little. He’d never gotten two calls in one night before.  
  
Aiba was already peeking from the backroom when Sho picked up the receiver.  
  
“Hello?” he asked tentatively. Usually there’d be someone panicking in the other line already.  
  
He was met with silence.  
  
Sho cleared his throat and tried again. “Hello? Is anyone there?”  
  
Then he heard someone whistling from the other line and he thought his heart lodged itself on his throat. Whoever it was, it was doing Tonari no Totoro, pitch escalating gradually until the whistling stopped.  
  
He could hear movement from the backroom and interpreted it as Aiba and Jun getting ready.  
  
Sho mustered his courage to speak once more. “Hello?”  
  
Then he heard someone panting, a voice of a man. “Is this the office of the experts?” he asked, sounding like he ran a mile, and Sho was relieved to hear a human voice at last.  
  
“Yes.” He met Aiba’s eyes across the room and nodded. “What’s your emergency?”  
  
He jotted down the details as quick as he could, ignoring the whistling that he was hearing from the other line and the man’s voice cracking every now and then. The guy was scared, perhaps no different from how Sho had sounded a few months back, but Sho assured him that help was on the way.  
  
“No sighting,” he said as soon as Jun and Aiba stepped out of the backroom. “But there was someone in his apartment, he said. Someone dark. He said he could only see someone move in the shadows. I heard it though. It was whistling Totoro.”  
  
Jun frowned while Aiba merely adjusted his nunchaku on his hip. “That sounds like a shadow man,” Aiba commented. “Should be easy.”  
  
Aiba offered a fist to Jun and they jankened for it. Aiba won (he had scissors and Jun had paper) and he beamed. “Guess this one’s mine, Matsujun!”  
  
“Just go,” Jun said, sitting on the edge of Sho’s desk.  
  
As soon as Aiba left, Sho tried to keep his eyes on his laptop. Jun was in costume, looking very annoyed at getting ready but ending up not leaving. Sho would try to comfort him, but he’d probably end up saying something like “I like you in costume” and that would just make him want to die afterwards.  
  
So he shut up.  
  
Until he couldn’t take it anymore. “What’s a shadow man?” He never looked up the kind of ghosts because most websites had jumpscares that made blood rush to his head.  
  
“Exactly as it sounds. A shadow man.”  
  
Sho did figure that out, but he wanted to keep Jun on his desk a little longer. “Does this happen a lot? You being left alone in the office?”  
  
Jun turned to him then, all perfect hair and handsome face, and Sho willed himself not to be intimidated. Jun had always been good-looking, but he became extra attractive in Sho’s eyes every time he wrapped his body in leather. “We have a rule that there’s always one who should be left at the office. In case we get another call.”  
  
That got Sho thinking. “When I called you at that time, Ohno-kun and Aiba-chan were on a fishing trip.” There’d been no one in the office then.  
  
Jun had his tongue against his cheek, his earlier annoyance at having to stay not dissipating. “You called us at four in the morning, if I remember correctly. Did you think anyone else was going to call us after you did, two hours away from sunrise at that?”  
  
“Oh.” Sho really had nothing special to contribute anymore.  
  
Jun shrugged. “But I’m not alone in the office now. So no, this doesn’t happen often. This is the first time that they all left and yet I’m not alone in the office.”  
  
“What did you do when you were alone?” Sho asked.  
  
“Wait for them to come back.”  
  
Sho couldn’t help laughing at that. “That sounded like a line from Spongebob.”  
  
“You watch Spongebob?”  
  
“Watched,” Sho said. “Purely past tense. I have a little brother, you know. I used to sit with him whenever it aired.”  
  
Jun smiled, and Sho wished he’d stop doing so because now his stomach felt funny. “Yeah, that was a Spongebob line. A Patrick one, I think.”  
  
“What did you really do?” Sho asked. He pointedly kept his gaze at the mole on Jun’s chin, willing his eyes not to stray. Lower or higher—either way seemed a bad idea.  
  
“I cooked,” Jun admitted. He was playing with the pens on Sho’s desk now. “Whenever those guys come back, they want food. Sometimes I order in. When it’s Nino who gets left behind, there’s definitely gyoza waiting for us. With Leader, he’d fillet a tuna and have us eat sashimi. Aiba-chan would order mabo tofu.”  
  
“So that’s tradition for you? Eating whenever you come back from...a case?” Sho had no idea what to call it. A mission? A banishment? Ghosthunting didn’t sound right, not when they trapped ghosts in glass balls and kept it in a protected glass shelf in the backroom.  
  
“Yeah,” Jun agreed. Then he got off Sho’s desk and tilted his head. “Come help me cook for those guys.”  
  
Sho blinked and stared at the phone. “But the phone might ring.”  
  
“Then you’ll answer it when it does.” Jun reached out and tugged at his wrist, the material of his glove rough against Sho’s skin. “Come on. You can chop vegetables, right?”  
  
Sho had never been in the backroom kitchen. He wasn’t skilled at handling kitchenware either, preferring takeouts and convenience store food. Not exactly healthful.  
  
“My cooking skills are nonexistent,” he said, standing awkwardly in the kitchen as Jun, still in full costume at that, began gathering ingredients. He seemed to have set his mind on pasta.  
  
“Is that so?” Jun asked, a tiny smile gracing his features. Sho understood that his attraction to Jun stemmed from that night Jun had saved him from a shrieking ghost, but did Jun have to cook too and prove to Sho that he was really a package deal?  
  
“My best dish is barley tea,” Sho admitted.  
  
That got Jun to look at him and laugh. He handed Sho a knife. “I just need you to mince the garlic. You can do that at least?”  
  
“I’ll try.” Sho took the knife and set to the task. From his periphery, he caught Jun unclasping the strap that held his guns’ holsters, depositing it in a nearby chair. He disposed of his gloves and jacket too, leaving him wearing his leather pants and a fitting black v-neck that Sho wanted to curse.  
  
Jun filled the shirt really well, and Sho hated how he reeked of garlic as Jun got to washing his hands and starting his stove. Had he been a braver person, he’d have done something about his “Jun problem” that had been going on for months, perhaps push Jun against the kitchen counter and kiss the smile off his face.  
  
But Jun had seen him cry in an elevator and Sho honestly believed there was no damn way Jun could ever hold him in high regard. As a colleague maybe, a friend in due time, but nothing more.  
  
He put the minced garlic in a bowl and handed it to Jun, who accepted it with a small thank you.  
  
“That’s all I can help with, I guess,” Sho said, knowing ever since that he had no place in the kitchen. He moved to leave.  
  
“Stay,” Jun said, his back turned to Sho as he watched the noodles cook. Sho couldn’t really see his face, only his broad shoulders and his perfectly styled hair. “I need a taste tester.”  
  
Sho couldn’t really refuse that. He loved food and eating, and Jun seemed like the person who knew what he was doing.  
  
“Okay.” What else could Sho say? I like how you look but it’s affecting me really badly so can you please stop?  
  
He took a seat in the chair nearest to the door so if the phone rang he’d hear it even if his eyes were saved for Jun alone. Jun worked efficiently, chopping ingredients with mastery that left Sho admiring him more, and by the time Jun was done with the sauce, there was an inviting aroma permeating out of the kitchen.  
  
Jun held out his ladle and Sho approached to give it a taste.  
  
“Italian?” he asked. He knew nothing about pastas, only that whatever Jun was making tasted perfect. Was there anything Jun couldn’t do?  
  
Jun smiled. “Well?”  
  
“It’s really good,” Sho said honestly. “Even if I don’t know what it is.”  
  
“You’d eat anything,” Jun told him, turning away.  
  
Anything you make, yes, Sho wanted to say.  
  
Instead he settled for a weak “yeah I guess,” his attraction to Jun now at zero chances of disappearing.  
  
\--  
  
Lately, the calls came frequently, which meant more money for Nino, more work for Ohno, more ghosts to banish for Aiba, more places to investigate for Jun, and more reports to type up for Sho. The prevalence of hauntings sometimes sent Sho’s employers on separate jobs, but they never left Sho alone in the office.  
  
Until the time came that they had to, and Sho assured them he’d be fine.  
  
Jun had gone ahead that night, heading for Shibuya after they’d received a call around eleven in the evening. Ohno had been the next one to leave, investigating a paranormal sighting near Zenjou-in temple. Aiba had left only fifteen minutes after Ohno, when Sho had received a call originating from a lie-in clinic in Shirokane.  
  
Nino had been the last one to go, and he had seemed reluctant to leave Sho alone after Sho had put down the receiver. It had been an elderly woman asking for help because someone had been rocking her bed, she’d claimed. The distress in her voice had Sho asking for Nino to go, and Nino had given him one good look.  
  
“We can’t leave you alone,” Nino had said. “There has to be one of us here in case something happens.”  
  
But Sho had reassured him he’d be fine and besides, Jun should be heading back soon. He wouldn’t be alone for much longer, he’d thought.  
  
Thirty minutes after Nino begrudgingly left the office, there was an earthquake.  
  
Sho only noticed it because the wind chime he’d hung in front of the office doors wouldn’t stop jingling. It wasn’t a strong quake, perhaps a magnitude 4 in Sho’s estimation, but it was enough to make Sho’s desk sway.  
  
There was the sound of glasses clinking coming from the kitchen, and that only stopped once the earthquake did. The aftershocks lasted for a few more seconds, growing weaker each time, and soon, it was as if the earthquake hadn’t happened at all.  
  
Sho thought about the other four working outside, hoping they weren’t somewhere close to the epicenter. His only way to contact any of them was by sending a quick text, and he was halfway into typing a message for Jun when he heard something shatter in the backroom.  
  
The sound had him rushing, phone neglected on his table. He checked the kitchen for any broken glasses and plates, finding them all in perfect condition and lined up neatly in the cupboard.  
  
He heard something rattling, and he picked up a kitchen knife to arm himself as he turned around, fearing the worst. He was almost a year into this job and he’d never seen a ghost in the office, but he wouldn’t put it past them to exist in the base of paranormal experts. They seemed to be everywhere lately, given that most of the calls he’d been receiving were legitimate ones.  
  
The recreation room (as Nino called it) was only adjacent to the kitchen, full of Nino’s gaming consoles, worn down cushions lying abandoned on the floor. Sho entered it cautiously, taking care not to step onto any of the scattered discs Nino had messily left lying around. This room also had the shelf that contained the glass balls that housed the ghosts the group recently exterminated, and Sho frowned when he saw the glass sliding door ajar.  
  
Must be the earthquake, he thought. He moved to shut it, but something crunched under his foot.  
  
Sho froze in his tracks when he saw one glass ball shattered on the floor.  
  
His eyes quickly scanned the shelf, trying to recall the arrangement of the spheres the last time he’d been in here. There was one missing from the third level, and it was the one in broken pieces surrounding Sho’s foot.  
  
Sho slid the door of the shelf shut. He knew he wasn’t alone anymore, but he couldn’t let any other ghosts escape their spherical prisons even if he was trembling. He wasn’t sure what a knife would do against a vengeful spirit, but it wasn’t like he had any weapon of choice.  
  
He cautiously crept back to the main room where his desk was, depositing the knife on the table and quickly grabbing his phone. He deleted his first message of _earthquake, are you all right?_ to Jun and typed a new one:  
  
_a glass ball broke, i don’t know what to do_  
  
He looked up when he heard the chime above the office doors jingling, and he sighed in relief when he saw Jun come in.  
  
“I’m back,” Jun announced.  
  
Sho only nodded. “A glass ball broke,” he said.  
  
Jun tilted his head. “Broke?”  
  
Sho kept nodding. “From the earthquake earlier. I didn’t get to sweep it yet. I don’t know what to do.” He returned to the backroom, hearing Jun follow him.  
  
Jun crouched down when they got in front of the shelf, fingers inspecting the shattered glass.  
  
“I think it’s the only one that broke,” Sho said, double-checking the sliding glass door if it was truly shut. “But that means one of them escaped, right?”  
  
“Escaped,” Jun repeated. He straightened and licked his lips. “Yes. I guess that’s what that means.”  
  
Sho backed away when Jun stepped closer to him, but he was already pressed against the damn shelf that housed banished ghosts so he had nowhere to go.  
  
“Jun?” he asked uncertainly. He never called Jun by his name before, but Jun had no palpable reaction. “What do we do?”  
  
Jun only took another step until he was in Sho’s breathing space, hands on either sides of Sho’s head, braced against the shelf. On any other night Sho would be thrilled at the proximity, but now his blood was running cold and he felt his stomach dropping.  
  
Jun smiled, full of teeth that turned Sho’s skin to gooseflesh. “What do you want us to do, Sho-chan?”  
  
Sho’s eyes widened, and his legs felt like they were going to give. He felt the corners of his eyes grow hot, tears already pricking.  
  
He shook his head. “You’re not him.”  
  
Whoever was it that had Jun’s face leaned closer, and Sho felt cracked, cold lips against his own before everything went black.  
  
\--  
  
Sho woke in his apartment with all the lights off, and he wished he’d pass out again when he saw her: blue and glowing and smiling at him, as if she was waiting for him to wake up.  
  
Of all glass spheres to break, Sho thought, close to crying. He moved away from her, pressing himself against the corner and burying his face in his arms.  
  
He heard his name and he squeezed his eyes shut, unable to stop himself from shaking. “What do you want?” he asked, voice cracking. “What do you want from me?”  
  
His apartment was clean, which meant it had nothing to do with cleanliness. Jun had been lying to him then, yet Sho wished Jun would magically arrive and deal with this particular ghost for the second time.  
  
But he didn’t have his phone with him, and there was no way he could make it to the telephone if she was hovering right next to it.  
  
She said his name again, a soft coaxing that only made Sho want to disappear. He wanted to hide but he had nowhere to go. He threw his hands over his ears, not wanting to hear her again. She was smiling, that much was obvious in the voice she was using as she said Sho’s name over and over, and Sho shut his eyes.  
  
“What do you want?!” he asked, frustrated and helpless.  
  
She didn’t answer, and when Sho made the mistake of looking, she had her arm outstretched in his direction and was beckoning him to come closer. All with that horrifying, grotesque grin on her face.  
  
He felt tears streaming down his cheeks, and he shook in place as she began floating closer to where he was. He couldn’t move. He couldn’t run, couldn’t even think. All he could do was watch her approach him slowly, the unnatural blue glow she was emitting only emphasizing that she had no eyes.  
  
She was perhaps a foot away from him when the door burst open, and a nunchaku flew right past Sho to smack her square in the face. She howled, cradling her affected cheek, but Sho supposed he was the only one who could hear her anguish.  
  
“Get away from him!”  
  
Sho had never been so glad to see Aiba.  
  
“Sho-chan, you okay?” Aiba asked, and Sho managed a weak nod. Aiba then looked over his shoulder. “He’s fine! Get over here, come on!”  
  
Nino elbowed Aiba out of the way, a dash of red that was still visible despite the darkness of the apartment. Nino twirled his cane to land a good hit on the ghost’s side, pushing it back. How he was able to attack it, Sho didn’t know, but he was grateful that Nino now stood between him and her.  
  
“You’re okay, Sho-chan, you’re fine,” Nino said reassuringly, cane pointed threateningly at her. “Don’t come any closer.”  
  
She shrieked in anger and Sho covered his ears, wincing at the scream that nearly pierced his eardrums. She sounded like she was in immense pain, and somewhere between her howls, Sho heard his name again.  
  
“What is she saying?!” Aiba asked, now standing beside Nino. The two of them protected Sho, and if only Sho could move his legs, he could run out of his apartment.  
  
“I don’t know!” Nino hissed. “She’s not haunting me!”  
  
“She’s calling me,” Sho said weakly, shaking his head in denial when he heard his name again. It was like she was calling for him to help. She sounded angry and desperate, and Sho feared Nino and Aiba wouldn’t be enough to handle her.  
  
“I hate it when they get angry,” Nino said. “Where the hell did J go?! Wasn’t he supposed to be here with us?!”  
  
There was another blood-curdling scream and Sho couldn’t bite back the sob that lodged in his throat at the sound of it. She was fuming now, and when Sho looked up, she had a finger outstretched in his direction.  
  
The door swung with an unseen force, but before it could click shut, someone stopped it from the outside. Sho blinked repeatedly at the sight of Jun, who kicked his door open, his guns in both hands.  
  
“Where the fuck were you?” Nino demanded. “Did you stop by for Starbucks or something?”  
  
“I secured all exits. She has nowhere to go,” Jun said, looking very pissed. Sho had never seen him look like that before. Jun turned to him, eyes suddenly apologetic. “Run,” Jun mouthed.  
  
Before Sho could move, the apartment door swung shut, rattling in the frame.  
  
“She’s not letting him go,” Aiba said.  
  
“Well done, Sherlock,” Nino deadpanned.  
  
“She is not getting to him,” Jun said decisively, cocking his gun. “Go to the bedroom,” he ordered Sho out of the corner of his mouth. “And don’t open the door until it’s over.”  
  
That, Sho could do at least. He managed a little “be careful” as he crawled, knees thudding against the flooring as he rushed to his bedroom, slamming the door shut and pressing the bulk of his body against it.  
  
He curled and hugged his knees to his chest, trembling as he heard noises. Glass and plates were shattering, and he could hear Nino yelling commands and complaints every now and then (“Not there, idiot, here! Send her here!” “Watch out!” “Where the hell were you aiming, Matsumoto?!”). The ghost didn’t stop screaming his name, sounding like a plea every time she took a hit. Sho could only assume she was receiving blows, because she kept yelping in pain and screeching Sho’s name.  
  
“Enough,” Sho whispered to himself. “Stop calling me.”  
  
There were more sounds of furniture being overturned and glass breaking, followed by splashes and the click of wood against a solid surface. Then at last he heard Jun yell, “Nino, now!” and there was a stream of blue light from the under the door, coloring the floor in an unearthly glow.  
  
Then there was silence.  
  
Followed by Nino’s unmistakable voice. “I am installing a lock on the shelf.”  
  
“We should install ball holders in that shelf,” Aiba suggested. He sounded exhausted. “I knew it was only a matter of time before one of them escaped.”  
  
“Or,” Jun said, and Sho shut his eyes at the voice, “we should try to find another way to contain them. Glass balls are fragile, and we can’t keep banishing the same ghosts over and over each time they break.”  
  
Sho heard footsteps, followed by a soft knock on his bedroom door.  
  
“Sho-chan?” came Aiba’s voice. Sho was relieved it was him. “Sho-chan, she’s gone now.”  
  
Sho stood in shaky limbs, but he was able to open the door a little. He looked up slowly, fearing that the ghost had now taken Aiba’s form and was tricking him again.  
  
Behind Aiba, he saw Nino raising a glass ball that held swirling wisps of blue.  
  
Sho opened the door before he sank to his knees, and immediately Aiba was on the ground with him, billy club and nunchaku forgotten on the floor.  
  
“Hey,” Aiba said, smiling brightly at him, “hey, it’s okay now. It’s okay. We got it. Or more like Matsujun got it.”  
  
“Technically I got it,” Nino snapped, brandishing the glowing sphere like it was a trophy.  
  
Aiba waved him off. “You’re okay,” he said to Sho. “You’re okay now.”  
  
Sho couldn’t say a word. Aiba’s caresses on his back were soothing, and he felt himself gradually calm down, breath and heart rate reverting back to normal.  
  
Jun crouched beside him, and he felt Aiba move away.  
  
“Hey,” Jun said, but Sho flinched, remembering what had happened the last time he had Jun this close. He drew back on instinct, and he saw the hurt in Jun’s eyes.  
  
Sho swallowed to get some words out. “Are you him?” he asked quietly, bottom lip still trembling.  
  
Jun blinked in confusion. Then he stared angrily at the glass ball in Nino’s hand. “She imitated me, didn’t she.” It wasn’t a question.  
  
Jun stood and made his way outside without another word, and Sho felt himself being pulled into Aiba’s hug. Soon he heard Nino sigh, and he felt Nino’s arms wrapping around him too.  
  
“It’s okay, Sho-chan,” Nino assured him. “It’s okay now.”  
  
Sho held tight to them, wanting to believe every word they said.  
  
\--  
  
With Sho’s apartment a mess, he really couldn’t stay there, so he found himself rooming with Ohno. Each of his employers had their own private room in the backroom, but their rooms contained pretty much the same thing: a futon, a tiny closet containing a few changes of clothes.  
  
Nino managed to procure a spare futon for Sho, and Sho spent the next days sleeping with Ohno lightly snoring away beside him. He didn’t want to see his apartment ever again, but he was able to pack some of his personal stuff with Aiba’s help.  
  
Ohno was the one who gave him a break, saying that he could have a little vacation of sorts after what had happened. Treat it as a form of compensation, Ohno had said, since the accident wouldn’t have occurred in the first place if they hadn’t left him alone. He remained in the office and it became his temporary housing arrangement until he figured out what to do. No one rushed him, and they took turns in staying with Sho so he wouldn’t be alone.  
  
Except for Jun. He never saw Jun again, and he knew Jun was avoiding him for his own sake.  
  
Since Sho had gotten accustomed to his night job, sleeping in the morning wasn’t a problem, but he often woke up in the throes of a nightmare that consisted of black pits for eyes and an unwavering, sinister smile. He’d have Ohno, Aiba, or Nino shaking him awake and he’d end up apologizing for having yet another bad dream.  
  
It had been two weeks since the incident, and still he found himself trapped in one of those dreams again, and he knew it the moment he saw something blue and heard his name being uttered by a feminine voice. He saw her face once more and Sho willed himself to wake up.  
  
He screamed when she grabbed his shoulder. He couldn’t move, but his eyes snapped open when he felt a sharp, stinging slap land on his face. He cradled his cheek in pain and tried to roll to his side, but someone was on top of him.  
  
It was Jun, straddling him and looking at him with wild eyes.  
  
Sho looked up at him, dumbstruck. He hadn’t seen Jun’s face in so long.  
  
Jun grabbed his shoulders and shook him. “Are you awake?” he asked, breathing heavily. “Are you awake now?”  
  
Sho managed to nod, and Jun sighed.  
  
“You were screaming,” Jun explained, moving away from him and standing as far as possible. “Nino and the others went out for groceries. They said you’d be fine, that you weren’t dreaming lately.”  
  
Sho sat up, caressing his reddening cheek. Jun had hit him but good; his skin was still warm. “I’m sorry I woke you.” He knew Jun kept the same hours as him, that he had been sleeping in the other room and must have woken up when Sho started howling.  
  
Without his costume, Jun appeared smaller. He was broader than Sho, but since he was clad in just a shirt and a pair of loose sweats, he seemed less bulky. He didn’t even have his glasses on, and Sho supposed that only meant Jun had run the moment he’d heard Sho.  
  
“Don’t be sorry,” Jun said, voice clipped. He didn’t look at Sho, instead hovered by the door awkwardly. He appeared to contemplate what else he could say. “I’ll be next door if you need anything.”  
  
Jun shut the door behind him and Sho sighed, left with nothing but a gnawing ache in his chest at the sight of Jun leaving.  
  
\--  
  
Sho took several minutes to compose himself, splashing water on his face until his skin cooled to the touch. He’d sweat profusely whenever he dreamt, and he gulped down a glass of water to calm himself.  
  
When he was sure he could walk without swaying, he stopped by Jun’s door.  
  
He allowed himself to hesitate for three seconds, then he knocked.  
  
“Come in,” Jun said, and Sho did. Like Ohno’s, the room had nothing but a futon and a closet, but there was an opened duffel bag at the corner.  
  
Jun looked surprised that it was him, perhaps thinking that the others had returned.  
  
Jun was on his feet in moments. “Did you need something? Did something happen?” Jun asked in succession, and Sho shook his head in answer. “Are you okay?”  
  
Sho nodded. He braced himself against the door, leaning on it for support in case his legs gave out. He’d never been this close to Jun ever since that night in his apartment. He could see Jun uncertain of what to do, looking anywhere else but his eyes.  
  
“I’m sorry,” Sho blurted out, knowing it was two weeks too late.  
  
Jun frowned. “What for?”  
  
“For everything,” he answered. “You didn’t have to avoid me, you know. I’m sorry I did what I did back at the apartment. I was just...really scared.”  
  
Jun shook his head. “That wasn’t your fault. You didn’t know. She used that against you. None of it was your fault.”  
  
“But I knew,” Sho said, and he saw confusion marring Jun’s features. His expressive features that showed nothing except for how scared he was for Sho. That look hadn’t changed since the night of the earthquake. Sho wondered how long Jun kept his feelings to himself.  
  
“I knew she wasn’t you.”  
  
Jun blinked at him, not understanding, and Sho took a step closer.  
  
“She looked like you, talked like you, even walked like you,” he said. He only stopped when he was in Jun’s space, and without the boots, they were almost of the same height. “But I knew.”  
  
“How?” Jun asked, whispering now since they were so close. Sho never had the chance to admire Jun’s eyes in this distance—brown and as open as he was, long eyelashes surrounding each, telling Sho everything he needed to know. He had been unsure then, but there was no mistaking it now.  
  
Sho smiled, small but genuine. “She called me Sho-chan. You never called me that.”  
  
Slowly, Jun returned his smile, a slight curling of his lips that revealed the tiny dot under his bottom lip. Sho wanted to run his fingers over it.  
  
“But you went with her,” Jun said, and it was Sho’s turn to frown.  
  
“What?”  
  
Jun met his eyes. “You went with her. You weren’t in the office when we got back, and it was Nino who saw your phone. It took us a while to figure out where she must have taken you, because we first had to know whose ball broke.”  
  
Sho shook his head. “No, I didn’t. I didn’t go with her. When I woke up, I was already in the apartment.” Sho looked at his feet now, feeling his face heat up. “I passed out when she kissed me.”  
  
He heard Jun inhale sharply at that. “She kissed you?” he repeated quietly.  
  
Sho was embarrassed that he fell for such a trick. “Well, she had your face.”  
  
He felt Jun’s fingers sliding to cup his cheek, tilting his head up. It was difficult to look away from Jun’s eyes, so dark and full of intent that Sho hoped was mirrored in his own.  
  
“For future reference,” Jun said, voice low and leaning closer, “this is how I would have kissed you, had it been me at that time.”  
  
Sho’s breath was stolen, and he found Jun’s mouth warm and pliant, soft lips pressing against his. Not like the chapped, chilled ones he’d remembered, but gentle and inviting, and soon there was Jun’s tongue coaxing the seam between his lips.  
  
Sho sighed and gave in, hands finding their place on Jun’s shoulders, clutching there. Jun was cradling his face in both hands now, kissing him deep, swallowing his appreciative moans for his own. There was the overwhelming sensation of Jun with him—his scent, his taste, the feel of his skin underneath the fabric that Sho bunched in his hands.  
  
When Jun broke away, they were both out of breath.  
  
Sho licked his lips, tasting Jun. “That’s how you would have done it?”  
  
Jun smiled, lighting up his whole face. “Yeah.”  
  
Sho looked over Jun’s shoulder, searching Jun’s opened closet. He grinned when he saw Jun’s extermination outfit inside. In fact, those were the only items in the closet. The rest of his clothes, Sho discovered, were in the duffel on the floor, a t-shirt still hanging out of the opened zipper.  
  
Sho stepped back and threw the lock on the door, and he saw Jun’s eyes narrowing. Sho went back to his space, arms looping around Jun’s neck as Jun’s hands settled on his hips.  
  
“Actually,” Sho admitted, “there’s something I’ve always dreamt of happening.”  
  
Jun’s face creased to a frown, but as Sho worried his lip, he seemed to understand. He looked over his shoulder and back at Sho, and he let out an incredulous laugh.  
  
“You want me to put it on?” he asked.  
  
“If it’s not too much trouble,” Sho said. “I won’t peek while you change.”  
  
Jun pressed a kiss to the corner of his mouth. “I don’t mind if you peek.”  
  
“I won’t though,” Sho promised, and he let Jun go and instead sat on the futon, back turned to Jun as he heard the sounds of Jun yanking pieces of his costume out of the closet. Sho tried to contain his excitement but couldn’t, not when he was mere minutes away from turning one of his fantasies into reality.  
  
It took a few minutes, but then Sho heard the closet door being shut and he slowly turned to look. Jun was in costume minus the colorful tubes strapped on his chest and the guns attached on his waist. He even wore the boots, the knee pads, and the gloves, and Sho couldn’t help laughing out of giddiness. Only Jun’s hair was out of place, unstyled and falling over his eyes, but he looked perfect in Sho’s eyes.  
  
“I really like that costume,” Sho admitted.  
  
Jun raised an eyebrow. “Just the costume?”  
  
“I like you in that costume,” Sho amended, eyes fixed on the leather straps on Jun’s thighs. He suddenly knew what he wanted to do.  
  
Without waiting for Jun to say a word, he crept up till he was kneeling in front of Jun, who momentarily lost his balance but regained it by stepping back. Sho licked his lips, looking up at him.  
  
“Can I?” he asked. His mouth was watering, and he really wanted Jun’s cock in it ever since the guy had shown up in his apartment building.  
  
Jun inclined his head at him. “That’s not really asking.”  
  
Sho positioned his hands on the button of Jun’s pants. “May I?”  
  
A thumb stroked his cheek, affectionate and gentle. “You may.”  
  
He unbuttoned Jun’s pants and lowered the zipper slowly, over the bulge underneath. Since the material was made of leather, it proved difficult to access Jun’s cock without lowering them, so Sho pulled the pants down to Jun’s thighs to get full access on what he wanted.  
  
Jun’s cock was already leaking precome, half-hard and demanding attention, and Sho wet his lips once before taking it in his mouth. He heard Jun’s appreciative exhale and felt one of Jun’s hands land on top of his head, guiding him. He braced himself by clinging to the back of Jun’s knees, taking more of Jun with each bob of his head.  
  
He broke off to relax his jaw, one hand giving Jun’s length firm strokes, Jun’s deep breaths encouraging him. Sho swirled his tongue around the head, savoring the taste of Jun all over his mouth. He was about to suck Jun off when Jun stopped him with a squeeze to his shoulder and a shake of his head.  
  
Sho smiled up at him, darting his tongue out to tease the slit, delighting in Jun hissing as a reaction.  
  
“Lie back,” Jun ordered, voice gravelly and pupils fat.  
  
Sho squeezed Jun’s cock once before letting go and doing as Jun asked, situating himself comfortably on the futon. He didn’t take anything off, and he felt Jun’s hands grabbing the waistband of his sweats to tug them off.  
  
He lifted his hips in cooperation, smiling at Jun’s impatience. His underwear followed his sweats, and he spread his legs for Jun to kneel between them as Jun tugged his shirt off him.  
  
He was naked by the time Jun kissed him again, hungry and insistent. Sho clutched at Jun’s jacket and pushed it off his shoulders. His hands settled on Jun’s chest, muscles prominent under the thin cotton material of his shirt.  
  
Jun pushed him back against the futon, descending on him as soon as his back hit the sheets. There were kisses pressed all over his face, his jaw, down his neck, his chest. Jun took his time, trailing soft kisses and lingering in places, leaving marks that Sho’s clothes would hide.  
  
Jun’s mouth eventually reached his navel, but when Sho thought he’d feel warmth around his cock, there was nothing. He opened his eyes, finding Jun digging inside his bag for something. Jun was still in his tight-fitting shirt, pants halfway down his thighs, cock fully hard. He’d be comical if Sho wasn’t so turned on.  
  
Jun found what he was looking for, and there was a shuffle of movement before Sho felt the press of a cold finger against his hole. He nodded his assent, biting his lip when Jun pushed in. It burned a little but Jun went slow, like everything else he’d been doing so far, taking his time in stretching Sho open.  
  
Eventually Sho was able to take more and more, body arching in response when Jun started moving his fingers faster. There were three now, scissoring in and out of him with ease, and he dug his heels on the futon when Jun lightly grazed his prostate.  
  
“I want,” he huffed, and he felt Jun’s fingers still. He looked at Jun, meeting his heated gaze with determination. “I want you to fuck me while you’re wearing that.”  
  
Jun licked his lips and crooked his fingers, sending Sho to a hitched moan. He heard the crinkle of foil and felt Jun withdraw his fingers, and Sho grabbed the other pillow to place it under his hips.  
  
“Come on,” he said, feeling so ready.  
  
Jun raised one of his legs and pressed a kiss to his knee. Sho felt the tip pressing against him and held his breath as Jun slid all the way in. He muffled his moan by burying half of his face in the pillow.  
  
“Breathe,” Jun husked, kissing his leg repeatedly. He didn’t move, instead giving Sho time to adjust. Jun was bigger than his fingers and Sho felt full.  
  
When Sho managed to let go, he bucked back. “Fuck me,” he demanded, feeling the edges of the leather pants tickle his ass. “Jun, please.”  
  
That was enough to spur Jun into movement, snapping his hips. Sho cried out and bit his lip as he took it, each slide of Jun’s cock inside him making his mind blank out. Jun’s thrusts were evenly paced, but he fucked Sho in force, pulling out and slamming back in, leaving Sho clawing at the sheets around him.  
  
He tried to meet Jun’s hips, legs wrapping around Jun’s waist to draw his body closer. Jun’s hands landed on the sides of his head, and Sho opened his eyes to find Jun looming over him, watching his face as he moved.  
  
Sho reached up and pulled Jun down for a hard kiss, muffling his groans against Jun’s mouth and Jun fucked him in earnest, hips constantly smacking against his ass. His cock was trapped between his naked torso and Jun’s clothed one, and each time Jun slid home, he got a bit of friction that made him moan.  
  
Jun reached down and took hold, wrist twisting just right and in time with his movements. Sho buried his face against Jun’s collarbone and bit on the skin in an effort to keep his whimpers down. Jun hissed, retaliating by fucking Sho harder, whispering praises in Sho’s ear.  
  
“So good,” Jun was saying, “you feel so good. So tight around me. Sho, Sho.”  
  
Hearing his name from Jun’s lips was the final straw, and his breath caught in his throat as he came, spilling between them. Sho’s mind whited out, his orgasm hitting him hard and knocking the air out of his lungs. He felt Jun’s teeth nip his jaw and heard Jun shakily utter his name.  
  
“Yes,” Sho encouraged, holding on to Jun’s strong shoulders as Jun’s rhythm faltered, hips moving in abandon. “Yes, Jun, yes.”  
  
Jun gave one final thrust, burying himself deep and came in spasms, body trembling as he rode it out, groaning his pleasure against Sho’s pulse. Sho carded his hands in Jun’s hair and stroked his scalp tenderly, waiting for him to come back down while he rested his legs back on the futon.  
  
There was a kiss dropped to his thundering pulse before Jun eased himself out and rolled beside him, disposing the condom somewhere to the side. It was a tight fit since Jun was bulky, so Jun eventually curled against Sho, panting right against the skin over his heart.  
  
“Did I live up to your fantasy?” Jun asked in rushed breaths.  
  
Sho managed a weak but contented laugh. “No,” he said. He smelled like sweat and sex and Jun, and he didn’t really want to do anything about it for a few moments longer. “You were better.”  
  
He felt Jun’s laugh fan his heated flesh.  
  
“We should try that with the jacket on next time,” Sho said, eyeing the jacket discarded a few feet from him.  
  
“I’ll try anything you want,” Jun said. “I’ll even wear the guns if you asked.”  
  
Sho let out a loud, boisterous laugh at that, and soon, Jun joined him.  
  
\--  
  
Sho ended up cancelling the lease of his apartment. The place reminded him of a ghost that had wanted him (as Ohno had explained when Sho finally had the courage to ask), and he’d packed up most of what he could salvage from the wreckage, seeing as the last encounter with the ghost left the place in shambles.  
  
When asked where would he go, Sho shrugged. He still worked as the receptionist for his ghost-exterminating employers, and the salary was high enough that he’d be able to rent somewhere closer to the office should he wished.  
  
But since he was currently in a relationship with one of the said exterminators, he figured it couldn’t hurt to try something else. He’d been living in Jun’s tiny room in the office lately, and sometimes he was able to convince Jun not to go home at all and spend the morning with him.  
  
It got to the point that after Jun had fucked him on his hands and knees, Jun gave him this exasperated look that he only blinked innocently at.  
  
“If you asked, I’d agree,” Jun said. Jun had been complaining at having to keep it down out of respect to Ohno, Nino, and Aiba, and Sho had been successfully ignoring him until he got the hint.  
  
Sho beamed. Just to make things official, he asked, “Can I move in with you?”  
  
Jun snorted but leaned in to kiss him anyway. “Of course.”  
  
\--  
  
The clock ticked, and Sho stretched his limbs. It was another slow night, which meant that Nino had been trying to kick everybody’s asses in Mario Kart while Aiba and Jun accused him of cheating. Ohno only laughed at them, and from his desk, Sho could hear them enjoying themselves. It was a familiar sound now, knowing that there were four people who would help him in case he found himself in a pinch. Again.  
  
The phone rang, and Sho heard the game pausing. He caught Jun’s head peeking out, and he only nodded as he picked up the receiver.  
  
After jotting down the details of the case—nothing extraordinary in Sho’s opinion since he’d seen a lot of strange things by now—and relaying them to Jun and Ohno, he went back to his desk and opened up another document, renaming it to Case #88 along with the current date.  
  
It was Jun and Ohno’s turn to do the job together, leaving Aiba and Nino bickering in the recreation room. Ohno immediately headed out after giving Sho a brief nod, but Jun lingered on his desk.  
  
Sho rolled his eyes. “You have a job to do, Matsumoto-san.”  
  
“Is that how you’re going to send me away?” Jun asked, fake hurt in his tone.  
  
Sho scoffed. “Come here.”  
  
Jun did, and Sho leaned over to peck him on the lips once, twice. Then he pushed Jun back with force, laughing when Jun stumbled a little. “Now go get them.”  
  
Jun shook his head in disbelief, but there was a smile playing on his lips. “Don’t go breaking glass balls in my absence.”  
  
“Can’t promise anything, not when you’re going to come rescue me wearing that costume.”  
  
Jun’s eyes narrowed at him. “With the jacket on later?” he whispered.  
  
Sho grinned. “Hell yes.”  
  
Jun only inclined his head in the briefest of nods and left, chimes tinkling as the glass door swung shut once more.  
  
The phone rang and Sho squared his shoulders as he picked it up. He could hear Aiba and Nino cease in their playful banter and he opens another document, renaming it to Case #89.  
  
“Yes?” he asked the person on the other line. “What’s your emergency?”


End file.
